“Way more than a bit of a fumble,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), a fiscal hawk who is among the most conservative Senate members, told the Washington Examiner of the administration’s tactics. “This is pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a centrist retiring from Congress next year, accused embattled Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem of “taking this administration into the ground on an issue that we should own.” Tillis wants Noem, whose agency oversees federal immigration operations, to resign or be fired by Trump.

“We should own the issue of border security and immigration, but they have destroyed that for Republicans,” Tillis continued, also invoking White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller. “Something that got the president elected, they have destroyed it through their incompetence.”

In Maine, where Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is fighting a battleground reelection race, Noem agreed to cease “enhanced” Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after the centrist Republican urged the administration “to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.”

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, the White House doubled down on its strategy, saying Trump “won the election in a landslide based on his promise to carry out the largest mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens.”

“Our focus remains the same: prioritizing violent criminal illegal aliens while also enforcing the law — anyone who is in the country illegally is eligible to be deported,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “Meanwhile, the Democrats continue to slander law enforcement, defend dangerous criminal illegal aliens who harm innocent Americans, and back violent rioters who assault law enforcement.”

Jackson added that the Democrats had a losing “message in 2024, and it’s a losing message now. The American people want law and order.”

Democrats, for their part, are capitalizing on the issue on and off the campaign trail.

In Congress, Democrats are using newfound leverage to push policies that would restrict ICE’s sprawling powers, citing the deaths of citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota by federal agents, as well as allegations of overly aggressive and illegal enforcement tactics against protesters and suspected illegal immigrants. In the case of Pretti, he was lawfully carrying a concealed firearm and filming federal agents when a scuffle ensued, and he was repeatedly shot.

“If you’re an American, you deserve to know if you’re going to go outside and protest, what is it that you could be killed for?” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a libertarian. “What is an assault on a police officer? Is taking a video of a police officer — is that an assault?”

Among their demands, Democrats want to end “roving patrols,” “tighten” warrant requirements, implement stricter use-of-force rules, require body cameras, and prohibit agents from masking their identities.

“This isn’t about politics. This is about right and wrong,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a Democratic leadership member. “People in this country are up in arms over what they have seen in Minneapolis. They do not want to fund a government that is hunting citizens and committing murder in cold blood.”

Democrats are also banking on immigration buoying them at the ballot box in the November midterm elections, with candidates up and down the ballot running on an issue that was once a major liability for them under former President Joe Biden. Recent polls show a majority of voters now disapprove of Trump’s immigration enforcement and that the president is at risk of turning away key Latino voters he captured in 2024.

“This is a classic situation of overplaying one’s hand,” said David Paleologos, director
of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center. “President Trump had ‘the cards’ on issues like immigration and crime in 2024, but ‘doubled down’ in Minneapolis with ICE and has been losing polling chips ever since.”

But other recent polling also suggests Trump’s base overwhelmingly approves of the administration’s controversial tactics and wants the president to stay the course. Prior to Pretti’s death, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and send military troops to quell unrest in Minnesota. But since then, the president has toned down his rhetoric to suggest immigration operations in the North Star State may be reduced to “de-escalate” tensions.

“With the midterms coming up, Republicans shouldn’t go soft on this — this is exactly why voters chose Trump,” said Republican strategist Cesar Conda. “Instead of wimping out on tough immigration policies, Republicans should be pointing the finger where it belongs: at the Biden-era open-border policies.”

Johnson echoed the sentiment among Republicans that enforcement actions are undermining Trump, even if Biden created an illegal immigration issue and anti-ICE protesters are antagonizing federal officers. Still, he expressed optimism that the administration’s move to demote Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino from overseeing ICE operations in Minnesota and replacing him with White House border czar Tom Homan will substitute “wide drag nets” and “deporting pretty sympathetic cases” with more “legitimate enforcement actions” of those with criminal rap sheets.  

“People [who] are here that are working, that [have] established businesses, that kind of stuff, those are not the kind of people we ought to be deporting,” Johnson said.

TRUMP OFFICIALS WORK TO EASE TENSIONS IN MINNEAPOLIS AS SECRETIVE NEGOTIATIONS PROGRESS

The White House and Senate Republicans have expressed openness to some legal guardrails for immigration enforcement, which Democrats are insisting be etched into law. As part of a government spending deal passed by the Senate on Friday, Democrats agreed to allow only a two-week DHS funding extension, in the hopes of reaching a compromise on restrictions.

But the most difficult part will be negotiating concessions that both sides can swallow in such a short period of time. And even if the department were to shut down due to a lack of funding, ICE operations would continue with the money Republicans approved last year in Trump’s tax law.

David Sivak contributed to this report.